Seven Success Secrets of
Hypnotism Practice
Many misconceptions about success
persist in this work and hopefully I can help
you clear your mind so that you might
maximize your effectiveness.
The first prerequisite for success is a
four letter word: "W.O.R.K." But hard work
alone is not enough if you work without
knowledge or without an awareness of what
your efforts are producing. Everyone here is
obviously willing and interested in doing the
work and no one here believes that if you
pray or chant enough affirmations that bags
of money will fall from the sky in front of
you.
#1
MAKING THE
APPOINTMENT
The first session begins with the
telephone call. All of you are educated
enough not to use terms such as "patient" or
"cure" or "treatment". We don't have any
patients and we don't treat anyone. We are a
hypnotism center - I am speaking to those of
you who are not licensed in the healing arts.
This is a hypnotism center and we give
self-hypnosis, group and private hypnosis
sessions. We use hypnosis as an educational
process to help clients deal with certain
goals, problems and motivations.
In the early part of my career, I did
almost all of the phone answering. If you are
beginning your career and you feel that you
are too important to answer your phone and
you let the office helper do it, you are losing
business. Your office helper does not
understand the nature of your work, even if
it is someone close to you. You are the only
one who fully understands what you do and
your methods of operation. You should take
as many phone calls as you possibly can.
There will come a time when you will be too
busy to answer the phone and you may have
to let someone else answer for you.
Your main concern is to turn the inquiry
into an appointment for the first session.
When they ask, "Can hypnosis help me
with my problem?" I reply, "The first step is
for you to come in for a session and in that
time I will test you to determine your level
of response. I will discuss your problems
and goals and at the end of that time I will
tell you if hypnosis is indicated for you, how
long it will take and what the cost of the
program will be."
#2
THE INTAKE INTERVIEW
Once the client arrives I spend the first
fifteen minutes allowing them to present
their problem and completing the intake
form. Then I say to them, "How can I help
you today?" and they begin to tell me their
problem.
If you learn the art of intense listening,
you are likely to discover the problem in the
first five minutes. During the intake
interview I interact, I communicate, I ask
questions, I clarify and I feed back. When
you are using the process correctly, the client
will come to know several things, in the first
Fifteen minutes.
One: that you are not just hearing them,
but you are listening and focusing your full
awareness and conscious attention upon
them.
Two: they become aware that you are
analyzing, interpreting and evaluating by the
feed back that you give them ... "I hear you
saying," or "I understand that," or "it seems
as if," then they can confirm, deny or
correct. "Oh, I didn't mean it that way, what
I am really saying is..." or "Oh, yes, that's
right."
Three: as they become aware that you
are relating to them in a therapeutic process,
your rapport is being developed in the
non-hypnotic interview. They become
convinced that you are interested in them
and care about them, you devoted your full
attention to them and that you are really a
very wise person.
#3
THE PRE-HYPNOTIC
INTERVIEW
The first question is, "Have you ever
been hypnotized before today?" (implies that
they are about to be hypnotized.)
They will reply "Yes" or "No."
If they answer "yes", ask "Was it for
therapeutic purposes or for entertainment, as
in a night club?"
They may answer, "Well, a friend hired
a hypnotist to entertain at a party and he
hypnotized five or six others, but I didn't go
under."
Ask for the details, say, "Will you tell
me about your lack of response?"
"Well, we sat in chairs and he said
everyone put your hands together, press
them tightly together, and now they are
stuck. Try to pull your hands apart,' and I
was the only one who did. So he dismissed
me."
Respond to that by saying, "It is difficult
to relax enough to concentrate on those ideas
in front of a group of people, especially if
you are a little anxious that you might be
asked to do something silly."
Suppose they say, "Oh, yes, I went up
on the stage in a night club and the last thing
I remember is being told to try to pull my
hands apart and the next thing I knew it was
an hour later. When I went back to my seat,
they told me I sang, and danced and did
funny things while on the stage."
You now have additional information.
You know they went into a deep trance
easily. If they say it was for therapeutic
purposes, again you ask, "Who was it?" and
have them tell you all the details.
"Well, I went to the therapist and I felt
like I was floating on a cloud."
Store that because when you hypnotize
them, you will want to use it as feedback,
"Now you are getting that feeling of floating
on a cloud." Take everything they say of a
positive nature, about their previous
hypnotic experience and feed it back to
them. Why ask yourself, "What kind of
deepening techniques shall I use?" when
they have already told you.
If they say to you, that they don't
remember very much of what went on in the
therapist's office, again you have similar
input of information. The key question at
this point is, "Was this beneficial to you. Did
you get the results that you hoped for? - tell
me about it."
When they report positive results they
have told you, "I had a belief in hypnosis
and I tried it and it worked for me.
Therefore, here in this moment with you Mr.
Hypnotist, I have a tremendously high
mental expectancy. My imagination is
already excited. Don't expend a lot of time
on me doing all of those preparatory things,
I've already told you my story. I went to a
hypnotist and got good results."
Take one more step and say, "That is
wonderful. Now, tell me, do you remember
how you were hypnotized, what method was
used, what can you tell me?" They will tell
you whether it was someone who believes in
swinging a watch or using flashing lights or
just what the experience was, or you might
ask
"Have you ever been hypnotized?"
They reply, "No, I have never made an
effort to be hypnotized."
"Have you ever seen anyone
hypnotized?"
"Oh, yes. My friend was hypnotized on
the stage, and - .
Now you have some input. "What did
you think of all that?"
"I just could never understand how she
could get up there and sing a song. I know
her and she is quite shy. I could not figure
out if she was faking it or what."
This is an opportunity for re-education.
You say, "The reason she was able to sing
on stage, is that the critical factor of her
conscious mind was temporarily closed
down because she was in trance. The part of
her mind that says, "you are making a fool of
yourself, everyone is looking at you and you
should feel embarrassed," was silent.
Because she did not hear that voice within,
she was able to do something that is quite
within the natural capacity of any human
being, to sing a song or do a dance. It had
nothing to do with her values, which
includes her character attitudes, her religious
beliefs and her moral principles."
They often reply, "Oh, I never thought
of it that way. I just thought they would tell
me that I would not normally do anything
under hypnosis that I would not normally do
and I would never normally get up in front
of a crowd and sing a song."
Now you have communicated and you
are into the process of re-education.
When you ask, "Are you ready for me to
hypnotize you?" you can get a great deal of
information from their answer.
"Well, if you think you can?" or maybe,
"O.K, good luck." or "Yes, I hope so." and
sometimes they may say to you, "No - I'm
not ready!"
"Alright, if you are not ready, tell me
about it."
"I did not come today to get hypnotized.
I think I will just talk to you."
"That's all right. You have reserved the
time and we can spend the Lime talking and
I am not going to hypnotize you until you
tell me that you are ready for me to
hypnotize you."
They may say "No" just to test you to
see what will happen and five minutes later
they might say, "I am ready now... I was
anxious before, but now I feel more
relaxed."
At this point, it is time to hypnotize this
person using whatever methods that seem
appropriate to you. Whatever methods you
use on that first session, I suggest that after
the induction of trance, you begin a
relaxation process because you want to get
the full discharge of accumulated tensions
and make the First session the best session.
In the first session there is no attempt at
therapy, at least, not in an observable way.
Many clients have said, "I went deepest,
the very first time." What they mean is, "I
had stored so many accumulated physical
and emotional tensions that when I
discharged them, I got rid of a tremendous
load."
#4
TESTING THE SUBJECT
In the pre-hypnotic talk I ask, "Have
you ever been hypnotized before?" The
answer is usually "No."
Then I ask, "Have you ever made an
effort to be hypnotized before today?"
Often they say, "Yes, several times, but
no one has ever hypnotized me."
Then I ask, "was it for entertainment or
therapy?"
They reply, "I had a problem that I
wanted to deal with."
"What kind of therapist was it that you
went to?" (This is very important because
you want to find out if it were their neighbor
who is a certified public accountant and does
hypnotism demonstrations as a hobby; or a
psychologist or psychiatrist, whose
hypnotism skills are of ten the same as the
next door neighbors; or a trained
hypnotherapist of experience and reputation
in the community.)
"Tell me exactly what happened."
"He talked to me for a while, then he
said to sit in the reclining chair and close my
eyes while he repeated, 'You are getting
drowsy and sleepy and you are going deeper
and deeper into hypnosis.' He did that for
quite a while, but I never went to sleep and I
heard every word."
"Then what happened?"
"Well when I arrived home my husband
asked me, 'How did the hypnotism session
go,' and I said, 'Well I am not sure."'
"What do you mean, you are not sure?
Did you get hypnotized?"
"I don't think so!"
"You should know - were you
hypnotized or not?"
"Well, I don't think I was but the
hypnotist said I was."
"I don't care what the hypnotist said,
you should know. Did he lock your eyelids
closed?"
"Nope!"
"Well then, you weren't hypnotized.
How much did that cost you?"
"Fifty dollars."
"You didn't make another appointment,
did you?"
"No!"
One of the measurements of your
effectiveness is how many clients return
after the first session. The first session is the
one where they should be convinced and the
rapport developed, so that the therapy is
ready to begin.
It is costs you a certain amount of time,
energy and money, to bring that client into
your office. If you only get paid for a single
session, I doubt if you can recover the
amount that it cost you to get the client into
the office.
Open the yellow pages for any large city
and start calling the hypnotists' listings.
From thirty to fifty percent of those listed
are out of business. This happens because
they place their ad five or six months before
the directory comes out, and less than a year
from ordering the ad they are no longer in
business.
 Clients fail to return because they were
left with the feeling that they were not
hypnotized. I met with a group of hypnotists
at the Hilton Hotel in Baltimore and one of
them said to me, "I really confuse them,
when they walk out of my place they do not
know if they have been hypnotized. I tell
them that is part of the mental confusion
process."
I thought to myself, "At least he has
found a way to put a positive view on his
ineffectiveness." But, it still costs him
money every day.
Over the years that I have been in this
work and heard these many stories, the
question arises, why are the hypnotists
losing these clients. What is it that they are
failing to do? They are failing to test the
subject to bring to the conscious mind the
realization of the trance state. They don't test
because they are afraid that the client will
not respond in the way that the hypnotist
believes appropriate and if they fail to
respond, what will he do then?
Suppose he tells them that their eyelids
are locked closed and they open them. He's
afraid that they will say "Hey, Charlie, you
did not hypnotize me, you had better give
me my money back." That is not the way it
works out, but that is the basis for the fear.
You can't be successful in any line of
endeavor when you operate from a
background of fear. You must always
operate from a background of feelings of
competence. You will experience emotional
and psychic burnout because your fear and
anxiety will literally consume you.
#5
INDUCING THE TRANCE
Having completed the induction process
and testing the subject, you are ready to take
the next step. You are going to bring the
conscious mind the realization of the trance
state and you do that by giving three tests.
An arm levitation, up to the chest, the chin
or the head, and as the arm is lifting, you
compound it with the second test, saying,
"As your arm is lifting, your eyes are locking
closed and when you hand touches your
body, your eyelids will be locked so tightly
closed, the more you try to open them the
tighter they are locking closed."
At the same time, as the right arm is
coming up, use the second suggestion: "As
your right arm is lifting your left arm feels as
though it is made of marble or stone or
lead". Don't say that it IS made of stone,
because it is not and you have to deal with
what remains of a rational mind and you
don't know how much that rational mind is
active. Use the subjunctive mood to state a
condition contrary to fact which says, "your
arm feels as if it is too heavy to lift."
Use this wording: "Your eyes have
locked so tightly closed, the more you try to
open them, the tighter they are locking
closed and at the same time, you arm feels as
though it is made of marble, lead or stone, it
feels as if it is far too heavy to lift." This
"rule of reversed mental effort" will generate
a successful result in virtually every case. By
contrast, in his book New Master Course in
Hypnosis, (The New Master Course in
Hypnosis, Harry Arons, Power Publishers,
1961), Harry Arons gives the wording for
the arm catalepsy as follows:
Your arm is outstretched before you,
stiff and rigid like a bar of steel. You are
completely powerless to bend or lower it. In
fact the harder you try the more impossible it
is, because you are in hypnosis, you see, and
implicitly obedient to my every command.
You simply cannot lower your arm until I
SAY that you can! "What you are doing here
is impressing forcibly upon the subject's
consciousness that he is indeed under you
"hypnotic control" -else why can he not do
something so simple as lowering his arm?
A suggestion may be made that a few
minutes after awakening he would become
aware of a terrible itching sensation in his
back just between the shoulder blades,
where it would be difficult to scratch.
"You will be very annoyed with this
itching," you continue, "and will go into all
sorts of contortions to scratch this spot, even
rubbing your back against the wall and
against articles of furniture. But nothing will
help. Finally, you will appeal for my help in
the matter, because ONLY I will be able to
relieve this itching. I will simply snap my
fingers twice and the itching will disappear
instantly. This will convince you beyond the
shadow of a doubt that you are indeed under
hypnosis.
This wording is guaranteed to produce a
high percentage of failures because:
A. it openly challenges the subjects
autonomy,
B. it tells the subject that he is "completely
powerless", "implicitly obedient to my
every command",
C. it mobilizes the subject's "fear of losing
control",
D. it erodes the subject's dignity: "You will
go into all sorts of contortions to scratch
this spot, even rubbing your back against
the wall and on articles of furniture."
E. the overwhelming authoritarian style and
conflict structured wording generates
feelings of defiance from the subject.
I urge you to avoid making these
mistakes.
Now let's return to the correct wording
of these tests:
"Your left arm feels so heavy it feels AS
IF it were far too heavy to lift, in fact even
the very thought of trying to lift it seems to
be more than you wish to deal with, at this
time. You may, if you wish to, make an
effort to lift your left arm. Now stop trying,
relax and go deeper."
Now we have done the arm levitation,
the eye catalepsy and the heavy left arm
tests. It is important to utilize all these tests
so that you will get a response on at least
one of them. Any response to a single test is
100% success. You have now finished the
tests and you must explain their response.
You say, "The feeling that you felt, as your
arm was lifting, that is the feeling of
hypnosis. The feeling that you felt, as your
eyelids seemed stuck, that is the feeling of
hypnosis. The feeling that you felt as your
left arm seemed so heavy, that is the feeling
of hypnosis. I call these responses the
feelings of hypnosis because you and I
know that there is no rational reason for your
right arm to feel lighter than your left. There
is no rational reason for your eyelids not to
open instantly on the mere thought. There is
no rational reason for your left arm to feel
heavier than your right.
"In the hypnotic trance, the critical
factor of the conscious mind is temporarily
relaxed. This is the part of your mind which
examines incoming ideas for their rational
content. Since that part of your mind is
relaxed because of trance, you don't have
any inhibitions about responding to
irrational ideas; such as your right arm is
lighter than your left; or your left arm is
heavier than your right; or that your eyelids
are stuck. Your mind is not asking a
question, or making a statement such as,
'That's silly, my right arm feels the same as
my left arm because that is the way it should
be. I could open my eyelids any Lime I
choose.' Because of this single change you
are able to accept ideas that are different
from your previous experience.
"You might consider your mind to be
like a stereo system with speakers on either
side. When I turn the balance control knob
all the way to the left, the music will pour
out of the left speaker and the right speaker
will become silent. The speaker has not
disappeared nor has the circuitry to the
speaker disappeared, it is just temporarily
passive or inactive. When I turn the balance
control knob the other way, the left speaker
becomes passive and quiet, and the right
speaker is activated once again.
"In the same way, one circuit, or one
part of your mind, 'the critical factor,' is now
temporarily relaxed, and this is the major
change that occurs in the hypnotic state. This
is what enables you to accept good, positive,
beneficial and creative ideas that help you to
do the very things that you have set out to
do. in a moment, I am going to bring you up
from this trance and when I do, you are
going to have a much clearer understanding
of your trance state when you open your
eyes."
#6
PROGRAMMING FOR
FUTURE SUCCESS
Be sure to give them these hypnotic
suggestions. "You are going to have a much
clearer understanding of the nature of
hypnosis when you open your eyes. You will
have a much clearer understanding than you
ever had about the nature of your conscious
and subconscious mind. You will understand
that it is most likely you heard every word
that I said, even when you were in your
trance. You will understand that you were
not asleep in the manner that you sleep at
night; that you experienced a wonderful state
of physical, mental and emotional
relaxation, or a sleep of your nervous
system."
You have two more things to do. The
first one is to say; "Before I bring you up
from hypnosis, is there anything further you
want to say to me, ask me or tell me."
Give them the option to give you
information. They might give any number of
a variety of responses. Most times they will
say "No."
The second thing, done at the end of
each session of therapy, is to say, "Quickly
now, who do I remind you of"
You will get some very quick
information about the projections they put
on you. "You remind me of my father."
"How am I like your father?"
"Well he was a good friend, he was very
understanding" or "You remind me of a
minister," or "a doctor," or "a school
teacher."
I have had them say, "You remind me of
a judge."
"How am I like a judge?"
"Well, I think you are very
understanding."
Probably that person had an experience
with a judge maybe when he was a juvenile
and now he is more understanding. it means
that I am an authority figure and I am linked
to some authority figure out of their
experience. The most unusual one was when
I said to a lady, "Who do I remind you of?"
She replied, "You remind me of the
devil."
I said, "How am I like the devil?"
"Because the devil knows everything."
I said, "Alright, I am going to count
from ten down to one and we are going back
to a time that has to do with 'the devil knows
everything"'
In the intake portion of her session,
every time I fed back to her ("I hear you
saying...," or "In other words..."), she would
say, "Oh, my God, how did you figure that
out?"
Finally, she said, "You seem to know all
about me." Now, she says that the devil
knows everything.
In the age regression, she was less than
four years old and the family lived in a little
house on the edge of town. Out behind the
house was a small thicket of trees with a
stream running through it.
She loved to go back there to play, but
something happened to change things -
perhaps a child was molested, or some
hobos were seen back there. One day,
Mother said, "You are not to go back in the
woods any more," and when she asked,
"Why Mommy?" she was told, "Because the
devil is living back there now and you know
the devil carries off bad little girls." A few
days later she did something that Mother
thought was naughty and Mother said, "If
you don't stop being so naughty, the devil is
going to come right into this house, put you
under his arm and carry you right out of
here." She asked, "Marna, if the devil is
back there in the woods, how does he know
that I am naughty up here in the house?" Her
mother said, "The devil knows everything."
NEXT STEP: Terminate the trance.
"All right now, I am going to count from one
to five and at the count of five your eyes are
wide open, you are calm, rested, relaxed,
fully aware and feel wonderfully good." (See
the trance termination script.)
First thing I always say is, "Well, you
kind of surprised yourself, didn't you?"
There are only three answers they can give:
"Yes," "No" or "What do you mean?"
Whatever their response, your answer is
always the same: "Tell me about it."
1. You say, "Kind of surprised yourself?"
"Yes.”
"Tell me about it."
"Why, I really did not think I was
hypnotized, but then I felt my arm jerking up
and when I went to open my eyes they did
not open. My left arm just felt like it was
made of lead and I said, 'Hey, wait a minute,
I must be hypnotized?"'
"You see, you got a conscious
realization of the trance state. "
2. "Kind of surprised yourself?"
"No. "
"Tell me about it."
"Well, I read in a book about how the
arm came up and sure enough my arm came
up, just as I figured it would."
3. "Kind of surprised yourself didn't you?"
"No."
"Tell me about it."
"Well, I thought if I were hypnotized I
would not hear anything and I would feel
like a zombie."
Then ask, "What did you experience?"
"Oh, I just felt the relaxation and my
arm coming up and my eyes sort of stuck but
I heard a horn blow as a car went by
outside."
What you have done is to take them
from the place of basic misunderstanding to
a position of some understanding, and what
you are doing is to send them home with one
of two positions.
The first is, "Yes, I was hypnotized" or
"I might have been, or, I'm just not quite
sure."
 When they get home, the "significant
other" says to them, "How did your session
with the hypnotist go?"
They can say, "Oh great, I was
hypnotized."
"Tell me all about it."
"Well, I lay there and had the funniest
feeling, my arm rose up -. "
"Oh great, made another appointment
didn't you?"
"Yeah, next week."
Or they can say, "I don't know if I was
hypnotized or not."
"What do you mean you don't know,
what happened?"
"I got feeling pretty relaxed, and he said
your arm is going to come up and my arm
came up. It was lifting, I don't know if I was
doing it, or what was happening and then he
said try to open your eyes, and they did not
open." They have something to describe to
the other interested person.
The other party will say, "You were
hypnotized. I can tell you right now you
were hypnotized."
If you have not been doing that and you
now begin to do so, it will add up to ten
thousand dollars a year to your income
because your clients will return for that
second session. They will go home with the
imagination excited and they will tell
everyone, "I was hypnotized," and they will
be back for more.
Now, what about your fears of being
seen as an incompetent?
Do you think, "If they do pop their
eyelids open, or don't lift their arm, will they
say, 'He is a poor hypnotist'?"
If you are not getting good results with
these tests, you should examine the phrasing
or methodology that you are using. Perhaps
you can talk to some other hypnotherapists
who are getting better results. Check your
technique against theirs. The wording is so
important that in my courses I place great
emphasis on it.
Every technique is given in full printed
form, not just, "This is what you say," but
instructions to the hypnotist about what they
do and say, a discussion about it and then
actual practice of it in workshops, using the
scripts.
I have spent 35 years testing and
perfecting the effectiveness of these scripts. I
know that they work and they work every
time.
I want you to build a series of successful
experiences while you are here because that
is what you came to me for. To learn how to
be an effective hypnotist and you can be
most effective when you are generating a
good income.
Let's suppose you say, "Your eyelids are
locked so tightly that the more you try to
open them, the more tightly they are locking
closed - now try to open them and find them
locking tighter and tighter" and they open
their eyes and smile at you!
Show no concern and say, "That's fine,
close them down."
No matter what a subject does, except to
become violent, you always say, "That's
fine."
If they have a need to disappoint you, or
work against you but you continually say
"that's fine" to all of their responses, they
soon learn that they cannot disappoint you
by not doing what you suggest. Soon, they
will give up; if everything is always "just
fine," they will stop resisting. When the
session is over, they may say, "Well I did
open my eyes."
 Your reply is, "That's right, please close
your eyes, and open them again," and they
will open them.
Ask, "Is that the way you opened them a
moment ago?"
"No, but I opened them."
"Yes, but it took you several seconds.
The difference between the way you opened
your eyes just now and the way you opened
your eyes a moment ago, was the degree of
hypnotic suggestion that you had accepted at
that moment. Do you understand that
clearly?"
Students, it is always the subject who is
confused or misinformed - it is impossible
for you to fail because you have a great body
of knowledge and skills, which you apply
creatively.
When the subjects response is not as I
would like it to be it is their failure to
respond appropriately. If their arm did not
lift or their eyes did not lock and their left
arm did not get heavy. I just say:
"I think we need to talk a moment about
your unwillingness to respond. Just close
your eyes and think about it now and see if
you can come up with a few reasons why
you are exhibiting this unwillingness."
I never use the word resistance, that is a
very poor word. if I tell them that they are
capable of generating resistance, it is liable
to generate more resistance so I tell them it
is their unwillingness to respond.
#7
GETTING PAID FOR
YOUR
SERVICES
Collecting your fees can be a great
problem because there are several models
for payment.
If you are in an institutional setting or
clinic, billing is based on the old models of
the physician and psychologist, and the
client is billed monthly. No matter how few
statements you have to send out it costs time
and money. If you want to send out forty or
fifty statements, you must invest in the
forms, the ledger cards and the clerical labor
to address them. All of these services add to
your costs.
My question is, do you have clients who
don't keep an appointment? How many
weeks did you have 24 appointments booked
on Monday morning and you said, "I am
going to have some income this week," but
at the end of the week twelve of the twenty
four had not shown up.
I have been in the work for thirty years,
and completed 40,000 hours of clinical
hypnotherapy. I was always resentful when I
looked at the end of the week and I had "no
shows" before I adopted the principle I am
about to explain to you.
Printed on your appointment card is the
statement "Advance notice of a cancellation
must be given at least 48 hours in advance or
a charge will be made." An hour before, or
10 minutes after the appointment time, the
client calls and says, "I'm sorry I can't make
it." About seventy per cent of them say, "My
car is broken down," or "There has been an
accident on the freeway." The other thirty
per cent say, "My child is sick and I have to
take her to the doctor." Or "My husband
took the car and he was supposed to be back
but he is not back yet."
Rarely do they tell you the real reason,
such as, "I had an unexpected expense last
week, I had to buy Jimmy football shoes,
and they are $68.00, so I thought and
thought how could I cut back on
expenditures this week and save $50.00."
They say. "My car is broken down". reasons that you alter your methods for
The first reality of this practice is, of collecting money, and one way to do that is
those who do it to you once, seventy-five per by selling a block of time.
cent will do it to you twice and of those who
do it to you twice, ninety-nine per cent will
do it to you three times because that is their
pattern of behavior.
The same principal applies when you
send statements, you get down to a few who
are always two to three months behind and
your office manager says, "I thought you
ought to see these three overdue accounts."
You look at them and say, "Mary Jones
owes me for three months! What is wrong
with that woman? I knock myself out doing
age regressions and twice I let her
appointments run over time. Why is she so
ungrateful that she is not paying me?"
Question: When Mary Jones walks in
for her appointment and you are aware of
her unpaid fees, do you have the quality of
caring to do your best work with her?
What you really feel like doing is to say,
"I work hard for you and give you the best
service, but you don't pay me the money and
you don't even try to explain why." Instead
you say, "That is not professional, so I won't
do that. "
The very same thing applies with the no
shows. After a client has missed two
appointments, unless you are booked months
ahead, it is unlikely you will charge them the
cancellation fee. You will say, "This was the
first time so I will let it go."
The second time you say, "It is not
really fair to charge money for something
they did not get, besides I could use that
time to work on my books." But when they
walk in the office, you are going to have a
resentful feeling that will interfere with the
maximum effectiveness of your therapy.
I am suggesting there are many, many